Scheduling request resource configuration

ABSTRACT

There is disclosed a method of operating a user equipment in a radio access network. The user equipment is configured with a reference time resource available, in one or more slots, for transmission of a scheduling request by the user equipment, the reference time resource includes a reference symbol R, wherein each of the one or more slots has a slot duration that is based on a number N of symbols in the slot. The user equipment further is configured with a requesting periodicity P indicating a periodicity with a time period shorter than the slot duration. The method includes transmitting a scheduling request message at a request transmission symbol T which is based on the reference symbol R and the periodicity P. The disclosure also pertains to related methods and devices.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.16/398,655 filed on Apr. 30, 2019, which is a continuation ofInternational Application No. PCT/SE2018/050027, filed Jan. 12, 2018,the entireties of both of which are incorporated herein by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This disclosure pertains to wireless or telecommunication communicationtechnology, in particular to radio access technology, e.g. for mobilecommunication.

BACKGROUND

Currently, radio telecommunication technology of 5^(th) Generation isbeing developed, with the goal to serve a large variety of use cases.Thus, the development aims at providing systems with a high level offlexibility, which can lead to undesirable levels of (control) signalingoverhead. One type of control signaling is related to schedulingrequest, e.g. if a user equipment (UE) requests resources fortransmission. The request itself has to be sent on resources, which haveto be configured or otherwise indicated or reserved. In particular forlow-latency applications, or other application requiring a high densityof resources available for such requests, the signaling overhead can besignificant.

SUMMARY

It is an object of this disclosure to provide approaches allowingefficient control signaling, in particular for handling schedulingrequests, e.g. transmission from a user equipment (UE) to a network(e.g., a network node) indicating that the UE desires resources foruplink transmission. The approaches are particularly advantageouslyimplemented in a 5^(th) Generation (5G) telecommunication network or 5Gradio access technology or network (RAT/RAN), in particular according to3GPP (3^(rd) Generation Partnership Project, a standardisationorganization). A suitable RAN may in particular be a RAN according toNR, for example release 15 or later, or LTE Evolution.

There is generally disclosed a method of operating a user equipment (or,more generally, a first radio node) in a radio access network. The userequipment (or first radio node) is configured with a reference timeresource. The reference time resource is available in one or more slotsfor transmission of a scheduling request by the user equipment.Moreover, the reference time resource comprises a reference symbol R,wherein each of the one or more slots has a slot duration that is basedon a number N of symbols in the slot. The user equipment or first radionode further is configured with a requesting periodicity P indicating aperiodicity with a time period shorter than the slot duration. Themethod comprises transmitting a scheduling request message at a requesttransmission symbol T which is based on the reference symbol R and theperiodicity P.

There is also considered a user equipment for a radio access network.The user equipment is configured with a reference time resource. Thereference time resource is available, in one or more slots, fortransmission of a scheduling request by the user equipment. Thereference time resource comprises a reference symbol R, wherein each ofthe one or more slots has a slot duration that is based on a number N ofsymbols in the slot. The user equipment (or first radio node) further isconfigured with a requesting periodicity P, which indicates aperiodicity with a time period shorter than the slot duration. The userequipment (or first radio node) is adapted and/or configured fortransmitting a scheduling request message at a request transmissionsymbol T which is based on the reference symbol R and the periodicity P.The user equipment or first radio node may comprise, and/or be adaptedfor utilizing, processing circuitry and/or radio circuitry, inparticular a transmitter and/or receiver and/or transceiver, fortransmitting and/or being configured and/or determining the requesttransmission symbol T. Alternatively, or additionally, the userequipment or first radio node may comprise (e.g., have stored inmemory), a corresponding transmitting module and/or configuring moduleand/or determining module.

A method of operating a radio node (or a network node arrangement) in aradio access network is described. The method comprises configuring auser equipment or first radio node with a reference time resource. Thereference time resource is available, in one or more slots, fortransmission of a scheduling request by the user equipment or firstradio node. The reference time resource further comprises a referencesymbol R, wherein each of the one or more slots has a slot duration thatis based on a number N of symbols in the slot. The user equipment orfirst radio node also is configured (e.g., by the network, in particularthe radio node or node arrangement) with a requesting periodicity Pindicating a periodicity with a time period shorter than the slotduration. The method comprises receiving a scheduling request message(e.g., from the user equipment or first radio node) at a receptionsymbol RC which is based on the reference symbol R and the periodicityP. The method may also comprise scheduling the user equipment or firstradio node based on the received scheduling request message, e.g. fortransmission on a data channel like a physical channel and/or sharedchannel, in particular a PUSCH or PSSCH.

There is also proposed a radio node (or a network node arrangement) fora radio access network. The radio node (or network node arrangement) isadapted and/or configured for configuring a user equipment or firstradio node with a reference time resource. The reference time resourceis available, in one or more slots, for transmission of a schedulingrequest by the user equipment or first radio node. The reference timeresource comprises a reference symbol R, wherein each of the one or moreslots has a slot duration that is based on a number N of symbols in theslot. The user equipment or first radio node is also configured (e.g.,by the network, in particular the radio node or node arrangement) with arequesting periodicity P indicating a periodicity with a time periodshorter than the slot duration. Moreover, the radio node (or networknode arrangement) is adapted for receiving a scheduling request message(e.g., from the user equipment or first radio node) at a requestreception symbol RC which is based on the reference symbol R and theperiodicity P. The radio node (or network node arrangement) may beadapted or configured for scheduling the user equipment or first radionode based on the received scheduling request message, e.g. fortransmission on a data channel like a physical channel and/or sharedchannel, in particular a PUSCH or PSSCH. The radio node (or network nodearrangement) may comprise, and/or be adapted for utilizing, processingcircuitry and/or radio circuitry, in particular a transmitter and/orreceiver and/or transceiver, for configuring and/or receiving and/orscheduling. Alternatively, or additionally, the radio node (or networknode arrangement) may comprise a corresponding configuring module and/orreceiving module and/or scheduling module.

A radio node, in particular the first radio node, may be a userequipment or a network node. In some cases, the first radio node is auser equipment and/or the radio node is a network node. However, in somevariants, e.g. a sidelink scenario, the radio node may be a userequipment. In other variants, the first radio node may be a networknode, e.g. in a relay and/or backhaul scenario.

The reference time resource may be associated to a time/frequencyresource, e.g. a resource pool or resource region. It may be consideredthat the reference time resource comprises or consists of one symbol(namely, the reference symbol R), or one or more additional symbols,which may be consecutive in time. The duration (length in time) of thereference time resource may be shorter than the slot duration, and/ormay comprise MR symbols in time. MR may be equal to N, or shorter. Insome variants, MR may be 1, or 2, or 3, or 4 to 14. The reference symbolmay indicate the start and/or a reference and/or duration in time of thereference time resource, e.g. in number of symbols.

Configuring the reference time resource may comprise configuring, e.g.indicating, to the first radio node or user equipment to determine oneor more available symbols (available for transmission of a schedulingrequest) based on the periodicity and the reference symbol. Thecorresponding behavior may be switched on or off via a configuration.This configuring may be with the same message that configures thereference time resource and/or reference symbol, or a different message.

N may in some variants be 14, however, other variants may be considered.The symbols in a slot may be numbered with consecutive integers, e.g.from 0 to N−1, in particular from 0 to 13.

The periodicity P may correspond to a time interval shorter than theslot duration, in particular equal to or smaller than half the slotduration (N/2). In some cases, P may correspond to 2 or 7 symbols, or anumber of symbols in between. Generally, the periodicity may indicate aperiodicity of available resources for transmission of schedulingrequests. The reference symbol may be seen as an anchoring symbol for apattern defined by the periodicity, wherein the periodicity is on a timescale below a slot duration. Accordingly, multiple available symbols(respectively, resources) may be provided or configured.

The request transmission symbol may be associated to a correspondingresource. Depending on the slot duration and the periodicity, there maybe at least two, or more than two, possible or available requesttransmission symbols. The reference symbol R may be considered asrequest transmission symbol. Generally, the request transmission symbolmay be determined and/or selected, e.g. by the user equipment or firstradio node, from the symbols of a slot that can be addressed based onthe periodicity P and the reference symbol R. In particular, a set maycomprise the symbols of a slot numbered R+I×P, with I a positive ornegative integer or zero, such that the symbol is still in the slot. Insome variants, the values for I may be positive to cross over to one ormore consecutive slots (of the more than one slots for which R isavailable). In this case, for each slot border crossed, the symbolnumber may be reduced by the total number of symbols N in a slot.Alternatively, for each slot, the available symbols can be as given withI limited to represent symbol numbers in the slot only. If the referencesymbol is available for more than one slot, the slots may be consecutivein time, or in some cases interrupted by slots without R being availablefor scheduling requests, e.g. with a given slot periodicity. For morethan one slot, the reference symbol R may have the same number, suchthat in each of the slots, at least the same-numbered reference symbolis available.

The scheduling request, respectively corresponding signaling, maypertain to one carrier aggregation, and/or carrier, and/or bandwidthpart, and/or one channel (e.g., physical channel like PUSCH or PSSCH, orlogical channel) or channel group (in particular logical channel group)or bearer (or bearer group). The scheduling request may be transmittedon a specific channel, e.g. a control channel, which may be a physicalcontrol channel, e.g. a PUCCH or PSCCH, and/or which may be acontention-free channel. The channel may be associated to the carrieraggregation and/or carrier, and/or bandwidth part, and/or one channel orchannel group or bearer the scheduling request pertains to. A schedulingrequest may be considered to pertain to one of such structures if itindicates that resources are requested for transmission on thestructure.

Generally, transmitting (or receiving) a scheduling request message maycomprise determining a set of symbols available for transmitting therequest, based on the reference symbol R and the periodicity P. Suchdetermining may be for each slot individually, or for a set of slots,e.g. with selecting I accordingly, or another method.

The reference symbol R may be configured for a starting slot, e.g. basedon a slot offset. The starting slot may be the first slot for which thereference symbol R is available. The starting slot may be predetermined(e.g., based on processing time and/or a standard definition) and/or maybe configured or configurable, e.g. with higher layer signaling, e.g.semi-static signaling and/or RRC signaling. The starting slot may beconfigured as slot offset. In some variants, the reference symbol R maybe the first (in time) symbol available for transmission of a schedulingrequest.

A scheduling request may indicate that a user equipment or first radionode requests resources for transmission, e.g. if it has data totransmit in a buffer. In some variants, the scheduling request maycomprise buffer status information, which may be indicative of the sizeof data and/or size range of data of one or more buffers. A buffer maycorrespond to a channel, or a group of channels. A scheduling requestmay be carried by a scheduling request message.

Generally, a symbol available for scheduling requests may indicate orrepresent a range of symbols in which it is included, over which ascheduling request may be transmitted. Two symbols available fortransmission of a scheduling request in a slot may be separated by atleast one symbol of the slot, such that the available symbols may benon-consecutive or interrupted. However, a range of symbols over whichthe scheduling request is transmitted at the request transmission symbolT may be long enough to reach to one or more other symbols available. Itmay be considered that for such available symbols, no scheduling requesttransmission is started, but an earlier transmission may continue. Asymbol available for transmission may indicate a symbol in which thetransmission may be started.

It may be considered that in general, to each available symbol there isindicated and/or configured a time/frequency resource and/or channeland/or transmission format (e.g., a message format), e.g.semi-statically, e.g. with RRC signaling. Such configuring may be withthe message that configures the reference symbol, or with a differentmessage. A time/frequency resource may generally comprise one or moreresource elements, e.g. one or more symbols and one or more associatedsubcarriers or physical resource blocks.

The scheduling request message may be transmitted over one or more thanone symbol, and/or the reference time resource comprises one or morethan one symbols. The scheduling request message may in particular be aPUCCH or PSSCH message, e.g. a format 0 or format 1 (or derivatesthereof) message, and/or be transmitted over 1 symbol (e.g., format 0),or more than one symbol (e.g., 4 to 14, which may be configurable orconfigured, e.g. with the configuration of the reference time resource).

In some variants, the scheduling request message may be a physicalcontrol channel message, e.g. a PUCCH or PSSCH message.

The periodicity P and/or the reference symbol R may be semi-staticallyconfigured, and/or the periodicity P and/or the reference symbol R maybe configured utilizing Radio Resource Control signaling.

It may be considered that the periodicity P and the reference symbol Rare configured with the same message, or with different messages.Different messages may be from different radio nodes, or from the sameradio node.

The request transmission symbol T may be earlier in a slot than thereference symbol R of the same slot. This may for example be for thestarting slot, such that a scheduling request may be transmitted earlierthan the first configured symbol R.

It may be considered that the user equipment or first radio node isconfigured (e.g., by the network, in particular the radio node) with aslot offset, the slot offset indicating a starting slot from which thereference time resource is available. Accordingly, position of thestarting slot may be adapted to operation conditions and/or UEcapabilities (which may, for example be signaled to the network, e.g.the radio node).

The scheduling request message may comprise or represent 1 or 2 bits,which for example may be payload or information bits. In some variants,the message may comprise error coding bits, and/or repeat the payload orinformation bit/s, e.g. if the message is transmitted over more than onesymbol.

Generally, 1 bit (or more than one bit) of the scheduling requestmessage may indicate whether the user equipment requests resources fortransmission by the user equipment.

There is also considered a program product comprising instructionsadapted for causing processing circuitry to control and/or perform amethod as described herein.

Moreover, there is described a carrier medium arrangement carryingand/or storing a program product as described herein.

A corresponding information system comprising, and/or connected orconnectable to a radio node as described herein may be considered.

In general, a symbol available for transmission of a scheduling requestmay represent a possible or available starting symbol of such atransmission. Accordingly, a transmission of a scheduling requesttransmitted at a request transmission symbol may start at the requesttransmission symbol.

A request reception symbol may be based on the request transmissionsymbol and a signaling time. Receiving the scheduling request messagemay comprise, and/or be based on, determining the request receptionsymbol accordingly. It should be noted that receiving may compriseassociating a received transmission on the request reception symbol(and/or associated time/frequency resource) with a scheduling requestmessage and/or the first radio node (or UE). Receiving may generallycomprise listening for a scheduling request message at reception symbolscorresponding to symbols available for transmission. Scheduling a firstradio node or UE may comprise configuring it with scheduled resources,e.g. for data signaling, which may be on a data channel like a sharedchannel, e.g. PUSCH or PSSCH, or on a dedicated channel, which may forexample be a low-latency channel.

A network node arrangement may comprise one or more radio nodes, inparticular network nodes, which may be of the same or different types.Different nodes of the arrangement may be adapted for, and/or provide,different functionalities described herein. A network node arrangementmay in some variants represent a radio access network, and/or aheterogenous network (HetNet), and/or provide dual (or multiple)connectivity, e.g. comprising an anchor node and a booster node, and/orone or more of each or either. The radio nodes of a node arrangement maycomprise suitable interfaces for communication between them, e.g.communication interfaces and/or corresponding circuitry.

A system comprising a plurality of radio nodes as described herein, inparticular a network node and one or more user equipments, may beconsidered.

Signaling or a transmission may be considered to carry a message and/orinformation, if the message and/or information is represented in the(modulated) waveform of the signaling. In particular, extraction of amessage and/or information may require demodulation and/or decoding ofthe signaling. Information may be considered to be included in a messageif the message comprises a value and/or parameter and/or bit fieldand/or indication or indicator representing the information, or morethan one or a combination thereof. Information included in such amessage may be considered to be carried by the signaling carrying themessage, and vice versa.

The approaches described herein allow efficient configuring of resourcesfor scheduling request, in particular for short periodicities, e.g.below slot duration. The first radio node or UE may determine theavailable symbols in a slot based on only one resource/reference symbolbeing configured (e.g., with corresponding signaling), limitingsignaling overhead.

The reference symbol may generally be configured directly, e.g. withindicating the symbol with an indicator, or indirectly, e.g. referringto a resource set, and/or table, and/or time/frequency resource.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The drawings are provided to illustrate concepts and approachesdescribed herein, and are not intended to limit their scope. Thedrawings comprise:

FIG. 1, showing symbols available for scheduling requests;

FIG. 2, showing an exemplary radio node implemented as a user equipment;and

FIG. 3, showing an exemplary radio node implemented as a network node.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following, approaches are described for illustrative purposes inthe context of NR RAT. However, they are generally applicable with othertechnologies. Also, communication in uplink and downlink between asignaling radio node like a network node and a radio node like a UE isdescribed by way of example. The approaches should not be construed tobe limited to such communication, but can also be applied for sidelinkor backhaul or relay communication. For ease of reference, in some casesit is referred to a channel to represent signaling or transmission onthe channel. A PUSCH may represent uplink data signaling, a PDSCHdownlink data signaling, a PDCCH downlink control signaling (inparticular, one or more DCI messages like scheduling assignments orgrants), a PUCCH uplink control signaling, in particular signaling ofUCI. A scheduling request message may in some cases be a message onlycarrying, as payload or information, a scheduling request (e.g., 1 bit),or at most one additional bit. However, in some cases, the message mayalso comprise additional payload, e.g. additional control information,e.g. feedback information (for example, HARQ acknowledgement informationlike ACK/NACK) and/or measurement reporting information, e.g. channelstate information and/or beamforming information. In addition to bitsrepresenting payload information, the message may comprise error codingbits.

FIG. 1 shows configuration for scheduling requests. Several consecutiveslots are shown, each of which has a slot duration based on a number ofsymbols in the slot, e.g. 14, or 12, or a different number (for NR, itmay be 14). For each slot, there is configured a reference time resourcefor a scheduling request (SR), which is referred to as configured PUCCHresource for SR. This may be configured with RRC signaling and/orsemi-statically. A reference symbol R is associated to this resource andconfigured implicitly or explicitly with the resource. It should benoted that the resource may extend over more than one symbol in time.There is also configured a periodicity P for scheduling requests SR,which corresponds to a period shorter than the slot duration, e.g. to anumber of symbols fewer than the symbols of the slot. The otheravailable symbols (and/or associated resources or symbol ranges) in aslot may be determined, e.g. automatically, by the UE or network node(for reception or scheduling). It may be considered that a PUCCHresource configured for SR has starting symbol S_(SR) within a slot,which may be the reference symbol. The SR periodicity may be P=L_(SR),with L_(SR) for example 2 or 7 symbols, or another value, in particularbetween 2 and 7. In total, per slot, the following PUCCH resources forSR are defined with start positions S_(SR,n)=S_(SR,0)+n·L_(SR), withS_(SR,0)=mod(S_(SR),L_(SR)) and n=0, 1, . . . L/L_(SR)−1 with L the slotlength in symbols. For the starting slot, it may be configured orconfigurable, or predetermined, whether any start positions(corresponding to available symbols) earlier than the reference symbolare available.

The resource/s associated to an available symbol may in general beassociated to control signaling and/or a control channel, in particulara physical control channel like PUCCH or PSCCH, and/or may be associatedto control information in general (e.g., UCI and/or SCI), or toscheduling request specifically. A format for transmission may beconfigured to the resource and/or scheduling request, e.g. a format thathas a payload size or 1 or 2 bits, like format 0 or 1 (or derivatesthereof).

FIG. 2 schematically shows a radio node, in particular a terminal orwireless device 10, which may in particular be implemented as a UE (UserEquipment). Radio node 10 comprises processing circuitry (which may alsobe referred to as control circuitry) 20, which may comprise a controllerconnected to a memory. Any module of the radio node 10, e.g. acommunicating module or determining module, may be implemented in and/orexecutable by, the processing circuitry 20, in particular as module inthe controller. Radio node 10 also comprises radio circuitry 22providing receiving and transmitting or transceiving functionality(e.g., one or more transmitters and/or receivers and/or transceivers),the radio circuitry 22 being connected or connectable to the processingcircuitry. An antenna circuitry 24 of the radio node 10 is connected orconnectable to the radio circuitry 22 to collect or send and/or amplifysignals. Radio circuitry 22 and the processing circuitry 20 controllingit are configured for cellular communication with a network, e.g. a RANas described herein, and/or for sidelink communication. Radio node maygenerally be adapted to carry out any of the methods of operating aradio node like terminal or UE disclosed herein; in particular, it maycomprise corresponding circuitry, e.g. processing circuitry, and/ormodules.

FIG. 3 schematically show a radio node 100, which may in particular beimplemented as a network node 100, for example an eNB or gNB or similarfor NR. Radio node 100 comprises processing circuitry (which may also bereferred to as control circuitry) 120, which may comprise a controllerconnected to a memory. Any module, e.g. transmitting module and/orreceiving module and/or configuring module of the node 100 may beimplemented in and/or executable by the processing circuitry 120. Theprocessing circuitry 120 is connected to control radio circuitry 122 ofthe node 100, which provides receiver and transmitter and/or transceiverfunctionality (e.g., comprising one or more transmitters and/orreceivers and/or transceivers). An antenna circuitry 124 may beconnected or connectable to radio circuitry 122 for signal reception ortransmittance and/or amplification. Node 100 may be adapted to carry outany of the methods for operating a radio node or network node disclosedherein; in particular, it may comprise corresponding circuitry, e.g.processing circuitry, and/or modules. The antenna circuitry 124 may beconnected to and/or comprise an antenna array. The node 100,respectively its circuitry, may be adapted to perform any of the methodsof operating a network node or a radio node as described herein; inparticular, it may comprise corresponding circuitry, e.g. processingcircuitry, and/or modules. The radio node 100 may generally comprisecommunication circuitry, e.g. for communication with another networknode, like a radio node, and/or with a core network and/or an internetor local net, in particular with an information system, which mayprovide information and/or data to be transmitted to a user equipment.

References to specific resource structures like transmission timingstructure and/or symbol and/or slot and/or mini-slot and/or subcarrierand/or carrier may pertain to a specific numerology, which may bepredefined and/or configured or configurable. A transmission timingstructure may represent a time interval, which may cover one or moresymbols. Some examples of a transmission timing structure aretransmission time interval (TTI), subframe, slot and mini-slot. A slotmay comprise a predetermined, e.g. predefined and/or configured orconfigurable, number of symbols, e.g. 6 or 7, or 12 or 14. A mini-slotmay comprise a number of symbols (which may in particular beconfigurable or configured) smaller than the number of symbols of aslot, in particular 1, 2, 3 or 4 symbols. A transmission timingstructure may cover a time interval of a specific length, which may bedependent on symbol time length and/or cyclic prefix used. Atransmission timing structure may pertain to, and/or cover, a specifictime interval in a time stream, e.g. synchronized for communication.Timing structures used and/or scheduled for transmission, e.g. slotand/or mini-slots, may be scheduled in relation to, and/or synchronizedto, a timing structure provided and/or defined by other transmissiontiming structures. Such transmission timing structures may define atiming grid, e.g., with symbol time intervals within individualstructures representing the smallest timing units. Such a timing gridmay for example be defined by slots or subframes (wherein in some cases,subframes may be considered specific variants of slots). A transmissiontiming structure may have a duration (length in time) determined basedon the durations of its symbols, possibly in addition to cyclicprefix/es used. The symbols of a transmission timing structure may havethe same duration, or may in some variants have different duration. Thenumber of symbols in a transmission timing structure may be predefinedand/or configured or configurable, and/or be dependent on numerology.The timing of a mini-slot may generally be configured or configurable,in particular by the network and/or a network node. The timing may beconfigurable to start and/or end at any symbol of the transmissiontiming structure, in particular one or more slots. A mini-slot may beconsidered to correspond to a specific form of scheduling or signalingor transmission, which may be referred to as non-slot based or Type B(in NR), which may be seen as distinct to signaling scheduled for awhole slot and/or with respect to a slot-based structure.

There is generally considered a program product comprising instructionsadapted for causing processing and/or control circuitry to carry outand/or control any method described herein, in particular when executedon the processing and/or control circuitry. Also, there is considered acarrier medium arrangement carrying and/or storing a program product asdescribed herein.

A carrier medium arrangement may comprise one or more carrier media.Generally, a carrier medium may be accessible and/or readable and/orreceivable by processing or control circuitry. Storing data and/or aprogram product and/or code may be seen as part of carrying data and/ora program product and/or code. A carrier medium generally may comprise aguiding/transporting medium and/or a storage medium. Aguiding/transporting medium may be adapted to carry and/or carry and/orstore signals, in particular electromagnetic signals and/or electricalsignals and/or magnetic signals and/or optical signals. A carriermedium, in particular a guiding/transporting medium, may be adapted toguide such signals to carry them. A carrier medium, in particular aguiding/transporting medium, may comprise the electromagnetic field,e.g. radio waves or microwaves, and/or optically transmissive material,e.g. glass fiber, and/or cable. A storage medium may comprise at leastone of a memory, which may be volatile or non-volatile, a buffer, acache, an optical disc, magnetic memory, flash memory, etc.

A system comprising one or more radio nodes as described herein, inparticular a network node and a user equipment, is described. The systemmay be a wireless communication system, and/or provide and/or representa radio access network.

Moreover, there may be generally considered a method of operating aninformation system, the method comprising providing information.Alternatively, or additionally, an information system adapted forproviding information may be considered. Providing information maycomprise providing information for, and/or to, a target system, whichmay comprise and/or be implemented as radio access network and/or aradio node, in particular a network node or user equipment or terminal.Providing information may comprise transferring and/or streaming and/orsending and/or passing on the information, and/or offering theinformation for such and/or for download, and/or triggering suchproviding, e.g. by triggering a different system or node to streamand/or transfer and/or send and/or pass on the information. Theinformation system may comprise, and/or be connected or connectable to,a target, for example via one or more intermediate systems, e.g. a corenetwork and/or internet and/or private or local network. Information maybe provided utilizing and/or via such intermediate system/s. Providinginformation may be for radio transmission and/or for transmission via anair interface and/or utilizing a RAN or radio node as described herein.Connecting the information system to a target, and/or providinginformation, may be based on a target indication, and/or adaptive to atarget indication. A target indication may indicate the target, and/orone or more parameters of transmission pertaining to the target and/orthe paths or connections over which the information is provided to thetarget. Such parameter/s may in particular pertain to the air interfaceand/or radio access network and/or radio node and/or network node.Example parameters may indicate for example type and/or nature of thetarget, and/or transmission capacity (e.g., data rate) and/or latencyand/or reliability and/or cost, and/or indicate quality of serviceand/or latency and/or data throughput and/or prioritization, inparticular they may indicate a capability to provide such, respectivelyone or more estimates thereof. The target indication may be provided bythe target, or determined by the information system, e.g. based oninformation received from the target and/or historical information,and/or be provided by a user, for example a user operating the target ora device in communication with the target, e.g. via the RAN and/or airinterface. For example, a user may indicate on a user equipmentcommunicating with the information system that information is to beprovided via a RAN, e.g. by selecting from a selection provided by theinformation system, for example on a user application or user interface,which may be a web interface. An information system may comprise one ormore information nodes. An information node may generally compriseprocessing circuitry and/or communication circuitry. In particular, aninformation system and/or an information node may be implemented as acomputer and/or a computer arrangement, e.g. a host computer or hostcomputer arrangement and/or server or server arrangement. In somevariants, an interaction server (e.g., web server) of the informationsystem may provide a user interface, and based on user input may triggertransmitting and/or streaming information provision to the user (and/orthe target) from another server, which may be connected or connectableto the interaction server and/or be part of the information system or beconnected or connectable thereto. The information may be any kind ofdata, in particular data intended for a user of for use at a terminal,e.g. video data and/or audio data and/or location data and/orinteractive data and/or game-related data and/or environmental dataand/or technical data and/or traffic data and/or vehicular data and/orcircumstantial data and/or operational data. The information provided bythe information system may be mapped to, and/or mappable to, and/or beintended for mapping to, communication or data signaling and/or one ormore data channels as described herein (which may be signaling orchannel/s of an air interface and/or used within a RAN and/or for radiotransmission). It may be considered that the information is formattedbased on the target indication and/or target, e.g. regarding data amountand/or data rate and/or data structure and/or timing, which inparticular may be pertaining to a mapping to communication or datasignaling and/or one or more data channel/s. Mapping information to datasignaling and/or data channel/s may be considered to refer to using thesignaling/channel/s to carry the data, e.g. on higher layers ofcommunication, with the signaling/channel/s underlying the transmission.A target indication generally may comprise different components, whichmay have different sources, and/or which may indicate differentcharacteristics of the target and/or communication path/s thereto. Aformat of information may be specifically selected, e.g. from a set ofdifferent formats, for information to be transmitted on an air interfaceand/or by a RAN as described herein. This may be particularly pertinentsince an air interface may be limited in terms of capacity and/or ofpredictability, and/or potentially be cost sensitive. The format may beselected to be adapted to the transmission indication, which may inparticular indicate that a RAN or radio node as described herein is inthe path (which may be the indicated and/or planned and/or expectedpath) of information between the target and the information system. A(communication) path of information may represent the interface/s (e.g.,air and/or cable interfaces) and/or the intermediate system/s (if any),between the information system and/or the node providing or transferringthe information, and the target, over which the information is, or is tobe, passed on. A path may be (at least partly) undetermined when atarget indication is provided, and/or the information isprovided/transferred by the information system, e.g. if an internet isinvolved, which may comprise multiple, dynamically chosen paths.Information and/or a format used for information may be packet-based,and/or be mapped, and/or be mappable and/or be intended for mapping, topackets. Alternatively, or additionally, there may be considered amethod for operating a target device comprising providing a targetindicating to an information system. More alternatively, oradditionally, a target device may be considered, the target device beingadapted for providing a target indication to an information system. Inanother approach, there may be considered a target indication tooladapted for, and/or comprising an indication module for, providing atarget indication to an information system. The target device maygenerally be a target as described above. A target indication tool maycomprise, and/or be implemented as, software and/or application or app,and/or web interface or user interface, and/or may comprise one or moremodules for implementing actions performed and/or controlled by thetool. The tool and/or target device may be adapted for, and/or themethod may comprise, receiving a user input, based on which a targetindicating may be determined and/or provided. Alternatively, oradditionally, the tool and/or target device may be adapted for, and/orthe method may comprise, receiving information and/or communicationsignaling carrying information, and/or operating on, and/or presenting(e.g., on a screen and/or as audio or as other form of indication),information. The information may be based on received information and/orcommunication signaling carrying information. Presenting information maycomprise processing received information, e.g. decoding and/ortransforming, in particular between different formats, and/or forhardware used for presenting. Operating on information may beindependent of or without presenting, and/or proceed or succeedpresenting, and/or may be without user interaction or even userreception, for example for automatic processes, or target deviceswithout (e.g., regular) user interaction like MTC devices, of forautomotive or transport or industrial use. The information orcommunication signaling may be expected and/or received based on thetarget indication. Presenting and/or operating on information maygenerally comprise one or more processing steps, in particular decodingand/or executing and/or interpreting and/or transforming information.Operating on information may generally comprise relaying and/ortransmitting the information, e.g. on an air interface, which mayinclude mapping the information onto signaling (such mapping maygenerally pertain to one or more layers, e.g. one or more layers of anair interface, e.g. RLC (Radio Link Control) layer and/or MAC layerand/or physical layer/s). The information may be imprinted (or mapped)on communication signaling based on the target indication, which maymake it particularly suitable for use in a RAN (e.g., for a targetdevice like a network node or in particular a UE or terminal). The toolmay generally be adapted for use on a target device, like a UE orterminal. Generally, the tool may provide multiple functionalities, e.g.for providing and/or selecting the target indication, and/or presenting,e.g. video and/or audio, and/or operating on and/or storing receivedinformation. Providing a target indication may comprise transmitting ortransferring the indication as signaling, and/or carried on signaling,in a RAN, for example if the target device is a UE, or the tool for aUE. It should be noted that such provided information may be transferredto the information system via one or more additionally communicationinterfaces and/or paths and/or connections. The target indication may bea higher-layer indication and/or the information provided by theinformation system may be higher-layer information, e.g. applicationlayer or user-layer, in particular above radio layers like transportlayer and physical layer. The target indication may be mapped onphysical layer radio signaling, e.g. related to or on the user-plane,and/or the information may be mapped on physical layer radiocommunication signaling, e.g. related to or on the user-plane (inparticular, in reverse communication directions). The describedapproaches allow a target indication to be provided, facilitatinginformation to be provided in a specific format particularly suitableand/or adapted to efficiently use an air interface. A user input may forexample represent a selection from a plurality of possible transmissionmodes or formats, and/or paths, e.g. in terms of data rate and/orpackaging and/or size of information to be provided by the informationsystem.

In general, a numerology and/or subcarrier spacing may indicate thebandwidth (in frequency domain) of a subcarrier of a carrier, and/or thenumber of subcarriers in a carrier and/or the numbering of thesubcarriers in a carrier. Different numerologies may in particular bedifferent in the bandwidth of a subcarrier. In some variants, all thesubcarriers in a carrier have the same bandwidth associated to them. Thenumerology and/or subcarrier spacing may be different between carriersin particular regarding the subcarrier bandwidth. A symbol time length,and/or a time length of a timing structure pertaining to a carrier maybe dependent on the carrier frequency, and/or the subcarrier spacingand/or the numerology. In particular, different numerologies may havedifferent symbol time lengths. For one carrier, more than one numerologymay be defined and/or configured. A numerology may be parametrized by asubcarrier spacing and/or a bandwidth and/or a frequency reference. Thebandwidth may represent the frequency range of the carrier to be usedfor the numerology. The frequency reference may identify where on thecarrier the bandwidth is located. The frequency reference may correspondto a border frequency of the bandwidth, e.g. low or high frequencyborder, and/or may represent a center frequency of a subcarrier. Thesubcarrier may be a reference subcarrier, in particular a bordersubcarrier. For example, the subcarrier may be the lowest subcarrier(e.g., in frequency and/or number) in a physical resource block of thenumerology, e.g. the physical resource block at a start/low end of thebandwidth (in frequency). In some cases, the subcarrier may be thehighest subcarrier (in frequency and/or number) of the physical resourceblock at the end/high end of the bandwidth (in frequency).

Signaling may generally comprise one or more symbols and/or signalsand/or messages. A signal may comprise or represent one or more bits. Anindication may represent signaling, and/or be implemented as a signal,or as a plurality of signals. One or more signals may be included inand/or represented by a message. Signaling, in particular controlsignaling, may comprise a plurality of signals and/or messages, whichmay be transmitted on different carriers and/or be associated todifferent signaling processes, e.g. representing and/or pertaining toone or more such processes and/or corresponding information. Anindication may comprise signaling, and/or a plurality of signals and/ormessages and/or may be comprised therein, which may be transmitted ondifferent carriers and/or be associated to different acknowledgementsignaling processes, e.g. representing and/or pertaining to one or moresuch processes. Signaling associated to a channel may be transmittedsuch that represents signaling and/or information for that channel,and/or that the signaling is interpreted by the transmitter and/orreceiver to belong to that channel. Such signaling may generally complywith transmission parameters and/or format/s for the channel.

Uplink or sidelink signaling may be OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency DivisionMultiple Access) or SC-FDMA (Single Carrier Frequency Division MultipleAccess) signaling. Downlink signaling may in particular be OFDMAsignaling. However, signaling is not limited thereto (Filter-Bank basedsignaling may be considered one alternative).

A radio node may generally be considered a device or node adapted forwireless and/or radio (and/or microwave) frequency communication, and/orfor communication utilizing an air interface, e.g. according to acommunication standard.

A radio node may be a network node, or a user equipment or terminal. Anetwork node may be any radio node of a wireless communication network,e.g. a base station and/or gNodeB (gNB) and/or eNodeB (eNB) and/or relaynode and/or micro/nano/pico/femto node and/or transmission point (TP)and/or access point (AP) and/or other node, in particular for a RAN asdescribed herein.

The terms wireless device, user equipment (UE) and terminal may beconsidered to be interchangeable in the context of this disclosure. Awireless device, user equipment or terminal may represent an end devicefor communication utilizing the wireless communication network, and/orbe implemented as a user equipment according to a standard. Examples ofuser equipments may comprise a phone like a smartphone, a personalcommunication device, a mobile phone or terminal, a computer, inparticular laptop, a sensor or machine with radio capability (and/oradapted for the air interface), in particular for MTC(Machine-Type-Communication, sometimes also referred to M2M,Machine-To-Machine), or a vehicle adapted for wireless communication. Auser equipment or terminal may be mobile or stationary.

A radio node may generally comprise processing circuitry and/or radiocircuitry. A radio node, in particular a network node, may in some casescomprise cable circuitry and/or communication circuitry, with which itmay be connected or connectable to another radio node and/or a corenetwork.

Circuitry may comprise integrated circuitry. Processing circuitry maycomprise one or more processors and/or controllers (e.g.,microcontrollers), and/or ASICs (Application Specific IntegratedCircuitry) and/or FPGAs (Field Programmable Gate Array), or similar. Itmay be considered that processing circuitry comprises, and/or is(operatively) connected or connectable to one or more memories or memoryarrangements. A memory arrangement may comprise one or more memories. Amemory may be adapted to store digital information. Examples formemories comprise volatile and non-volatile memory, and/or Random AccessMemory (RAM), and/or Read-Only-Memory (ROM), and/or magnetic and/oroptical memory, and/or flash memory, and/or hard disk memory, and/orEPROM or EEPROM (Erasable Programmable ROM or Electrically ErasableProgrammable ROM).

Radio circuitry may comprise one or more transmitters and/or receiversand/or transceivers (a transceiver may operate or be operable astransmitter and receiver, and/or may comprise joint or separatedcircuitry for receiving and transmitting, e.g. in one package orhousing), and/or may comprise one or more amplifiers and/or oscillatorsand/or filters, and/or may comprise, and/or be connected or connectableto antenna circuitry and/or one or more antennas and/or antenna arrays.An antenna array may comprise one or more antennas, which may bearranged in a dimensional array, e.g. 2D or 3D array, and/or antennapanels. A remote radio head (RRH) may be considered as an example of anantenna array. However, in some variants, a RRH may be also beimplemented as a network node, depending on the kind of circuitry and/orfunctionality implemented therein.

Communication circuitry may comprise radio circuitry and/or cablecircuitry. Communication circuitry generally may comprise one or moreinterfaces, which may be air interface/s and/or cable interface/s and/oroptical interface/s, e.g. laser-based. Interface/s may be in particularpacket-based. Cable circuitry and/or a cable interfaces may comprise,and/or be connected or connectable to, one or more cables (e.g., opticalfiber-based and/or wire-based), which may be directly or indirectly(e.g., via one or more intermediate systems and/or interfaces) beconnected or connectable to a target, e.g. controlled by communicationcircuitry and/or processing circuitry.

Any one or all of the modules disclosed herein may be implemented insoftware and/or firmware and/or hardware. Different modules may beassociated to different components of a radio node, e.g. differentcircuitries or different parts of a circuitry. It may be considered thata module is distributed over different components and/or circuitries. Aprogram product as described herein may comprise the modules related toa device on which the program product is intended (e.g., a userequipment or network node) to be executed (the execution may beperformed on, and/or controlled by the associated circuitry).

A radio access network may be a wireless communication network, and/or aRadio Access Network (RAN) in particular according to a communicationstandard. A communication standard may in particular a standardaccording to 3GPP and/or 5G, e.g. according to NR or LTE, in particularLTE Evolution.

Contention-based and/or grant-free transmission and/or access may bebased on resource/s that are not specifically scheduled or reserved forthe transmission or a specific device (or group of devices in somecases), and/or comprise transmission that is not unambiguouslyassociatable, by the receiver, with a transmitter, e.g. based on theresources used for transmission.

A wireless communication network may be and/or comprise a Radio AccessNetwork (RAN), which may be and/or comprise any kind of cellular and/orwireless radio network, which may be connected or connectable to a corenetwork. The approaches described herein are particularly suitable for a5G network, e.g. LTE Evolution and/or NR (New Radio), respectivelysuccessors thereof. A RAN may comprise one or more network nodes, and/orone or more terminals, and/or one or more radio nodes. A network nodemay in particular be a radio node adapted for radio and/or wirelessand/or cellular communication with one or more terminals. A terminal maybe any device adapted for radio and/or wireless and/or cellularcommunication with or within a RAN, e.g. a user equipment (UE) or mobilephone or smartphone or computing device or vehicular communicationdevice or device for machine-type-communication (MTC), etc. A terminalmay be mobile, or in some cases stationary. A RAN or a wirelesscommunication network may comprise at least one network node and a UE,or at least two radio nodes. There may be generally considered awireless communication network or system, e.g. a RAN or RAN system,comprising at least one radio node, and/or at least one network node andat least one terminal.

Transmitting in downlink may pertain to transmission from the network ornetwork node to the terminal. Transmitting in uplink may pertain totransmission from the terminal to the network or network node.Transmitting in sidelink may pertain to (direct) transmission from oneterminal to another. Uplink, downlink and sidelink (e.g., sidelinktransmission and reception) may be considered communication directions.In some variants, uplink and downlink may also be used to describedwireless communication between network nodes, e.g. for wireless backhauland/or relay communication and/or (wireless) network communication forexample between base stations or similar network nodes, in particularcommunication terminating at such. It may be considered that backhauland/or relay communication and/or network communication is implementedas a form of sidelink or uplink communication or similar thereto.

Control information or a control information message or correspondingsignaling (control signaling) may be transmitted on a control channel,e.g. a physical control channel, which may be a downlink channel or (ora sidelink channel in some cases, e.g. one UE scheduling another UE).For example, control information/allocation information may be signaledby a network node on PDCCH (Physical Downlink Control Channel) and/or aPDSCH (Physical Downlink Shared Channel) and/or a HARQ-specific channel.Acknowledgement signaling, e.g. as a form of control information orsignaling like uplink control information/signaling, may be transmittedby a terminal on a PUCCH (Physical Uplink Control Channel) and/or PUSCH(Physical Uplink Shared Channel) and/or a HARQ-specific channel.Multiple channels may apply for multi-component/multi-carrier indicationor signaling.

Signaling may generally be considered to represent an electromagneticwave structure (e.g., over a time interval and frequency interval),which is intended to convey information to at least one specific orgeneric (e.g., anyone who might pick up the signaling) target. A processof signaling may comprise transmitting the signaling. Transmittingsignaling, in particular control signaling or communication signaling,e.g. comprising or representing acknowledgement signaling and/orresource requesting information, may comprise encoding and/ormodulating. Encoding and/or modulating may comprise error detectioncoding and/or forward error correction encoding and/or scrambling.Receiving control signaling may comprise corresponding decoding and/ordemodulation. Error detection coding may comprise, and/or be based on,parity or checksum approaches, e.g. CRC (Cyclic Redundancy Check).Forward error correction coding may comprise and/or be based on forexample turbo coding and/or Reed-Muller coding, and/or polar codingand/or LDPC coding (Low Density Parity Check). The type of coding usedmay be based on the channel (e.g., physical channel) the coded signal isassociated to. A code rate may represent the ratio of the number ofinformation bits before encoding to the number of encoded bits afterencoding, considering that encoding adds coding bits for error detectioncoding and forward error correction. Coded bits may refer to informationbits (also called systematic bits) plus coding bits.

Communication signaling may comprise, and/or represent, and/or beimplemented as, data signaling, and/or user plane signaling.Communication signaling may be associated to a data channel, e.g. aphysical downlink channel or physical uplink channel or physicalsidelink channel, in particular a PDSCH (Physical Downlink SharedChannel) or PSSCH (Physical Sidelink Shared Channel). Generally, a datachannel may be a shared channel or a dedicated channel. Data signalingmay be signaling associated to and/or on a data channel.

An indication generally may explicitly and/or implicitly indicate theinformation it represents and/or indicates. Implicit indication may forexample be based on position and/or resource used for transmission.Explicit indication may for example be based on a parametrization withone or more parameters, and/or one or more index or indices, and/or oneor more bit patterns representing the information. It may in particularbe considered that control signaling as described herein, based on theutilized resource sequence, implicitly indicates the control signalingtype.

A resource element may generally describe the smallest individuallyusable and/or encodable and/or decodable and/or modulatable and/ordemodulatable time-frequency resource, and/or may describe atime-frequency resource covering a symbol time length in time and asubcarrier in frequency. A signal may be allocatable and/or allocated toa resource element. A subcarrier may be a subband of a carrier, e.g. asdefined by a standard. A carrier may define a frequency and/or frequencyband for transmission and/or reception. In some variants, a signal(jointly encoded/modulated) may cover more than one resource elements. Aresource element may generally be as defined by a correspondingstandard, e.g. NR or LTE. As symbol time length and/or subcarrierspacing (and/or numerology) may be different between different symbolsand/or subcarriers, different resource elements may have differentextension (length/width) in time and/or frequency domain, in particularresource elements pertaining to different carriers.

A resource generally may represent a time-frequency and/or coderesource, on which signaling, e.g. according to a specific format, maybe communicated, for example transmitted and/or received, and/or beintended for transmission and/or reception.

A resource pool generally may indicate and/or comprise resources, inparticular time-frequency resources, e.g. time and frequency intervals,which may be contiguous or interrupted, and/or code resources. Aresource pool may in particular indicate and/or comprise resourceelements and/or resource blocks, e.g. PRBs. A radio node like a userequipment may be considered to be configured with a resource pool if itreceived corresponding control signaling configuring it therewith. Suchcontrol signaling may in particular be transmitted by a receiving radionode as described herein. The control signaling may in particular behigher layer signaling, e.g. MAC and/or RRC signaling, and/or may besemi-static or semi-persistent. In some cases, the responding radio nodeor user equipment may be considered configured with a resource pool, ifit is informed about a corresponding configuration, e.g. that it mayaccess resources in the pool for transmitting. Such a configuration insome cases may be predefined, e.g. based on a standard and/or defaultconfiguration. A resource pool may be dedicated to one responding radionode or user equipment, or in some cases shared between several. It maybe considered that a resource pool may be general, or for specific typesof signaling, e.g. control signaling or data signaling. A transmissionresource pool may in particular be for control signaling, e.g. uplinkcontrol signaling and/or sidelink control signaling, and/or may bededicated to the user equipment/responding radio node. It may beconsidered that a resource pool comprises a plurality of resourcestructures, which may be arranged in subpools or groups, e.g. pertainingand/or according to type of (received or scheduled) signaling or type ofresponse control signaling. Each group or subpool may comprise a numberof resource structures, wherein the number may be representable by anindicator and/or bit field of the selection control information. Forexample, the maximum number of resource structures in a group maycorrespond to the maximum number of different values representable bythe bit field or indicator. Different groups may have different numbersof resource structures. It may generally be considered that a groupcomprises a smaller number of resource structures than representable bythe indicator or bit field. A resource pool may represent a search spaceand/or space of availability of resources and/or resource structuresavailable for specific signaling. In particular, a transmission resourcepool may be considered to represent a (time/frequency and/or code)domain or space of resources available for response control signaling.

Configuring a radio node, in particular a terminal or user equipment,may refer to the radio node being adapted or caused or set and/orinstructed to operate according to the configuration. Configuring may bedone by another device, e.g., a network node (for example, a radio nodeof the network like a base station or eNodeB) or network, in which caseit may comprise transmitting configuration data to the radio node to beconfigured. Such configuration data may represent the configuration tobe configured and/or comprise one or more instruction pertaining to aconfiguration, e.g. a configuration for transmitting and/or receiving onallocated resources, in particular frequency resources. A radio node mayconfigure itself, e.g., based on configuration data received from anetwork or network node. A network node may utilize, and/or be adaptedto utilize, its circuitry/ies for configuring. Allocation informationmay be considered a form of configuration data. Configuration data maycomprise and/or be represented by configuration information, and/or oneor more corresponding indications and/or message/s

Generally, configuring may include determining configuration datarepresenting the configuration and providing, e.g. transmitting, it toone or more other nodes (parallel and/or sequentially), which maytransmit it further to the radio node (or another node, which may berepeated until it reaches the wireless device). Alternatively, oradditionally, configuring a radio node, e.g., by a network node or otherdevice, may include receiving configuration data and/or data pertainingto configuration data, e.g., from another node like a network node,which may be a higher-level node of the network, and/or transmittingreceived configuration data to the radio node. Accordingly, determininga configuration and transmitting the configuration data to the radionode may be performed by different network nodes or entities, which maybe able to communicate via a suitable interface, e.g., an X2 interfacein the case of LTE or a corresponding interface for NR. Configuring aterminal may comprise scheduling downlink and/or uplink transmissionsfor the terminal, e.g. downlink data and/or downlink control signalingand/or DCI and/or uplink control or data or communication signaling, inparticular acknowledgement signaling, and/or configuring resourcesand/or a resource pool therefor.

A resource structure may be considered to be neighbored in frequencydomain by another resource structure, if they share a common borderfrequency, e.g. one as an upper frequency border and the other as alower frequency border. Such a border may for example be represented bythe upper end of a bandwidth assigned to a subcarrier n, which alsorepresents the lower end of a bandwidth assigned to a subcarrier n+1. Aresource structure may be considered to be neighbored in time domain byanother resource structure, if they share a common border time, e.g. oneas an upper (or right in the figures) border and the other as a lower(or left in the figures) border. Such a border may for example berepresented by the end of the symbol time interval assigned to a symboln, which also represents the beginning of a symbol time intervalassigned to a symbol n+1.

Generally, a resource structure being neighbored by another resourcestructure in a domain may also be referred to as abutting and/orbordering the other resource structure in the domain.

A resource structure may general represent a structure in time and/orfrequency domain, in particular representing a time interval and afrequency interval. A resource structure may comprise and/or becomprised of resource elements, and/or the time interval of a resourcestructure may comprise and/or be comprised of symbol time interval/s,and/or the frequency interval of a resource structure may compriseand/or be comprised of subcarrier/s. A resource element may beconsidered an example for a resource structure, a slot or mini-slot or aPhysical Resource Block (PRB) or parts thereof may be considered others.A resource structure may be associated to a specific channel, e.g. aPUSCH or PUCCH, in particular resource structure smaller than a slot orPRB.

Examples of a resource structure in frequency domain comprise abandwidth or band, or a bandwidth part. A bandwidth part may be a partof a bandwidth available for a radio node for communicating, e.g. due tocircuitry and/or configuration and/or regulations and/or a standard. Abandwidth part may be configured or configurable to a radio node. Insome variants, a bandwidth part may be the part of a bandwidth used forcommunicating, e.g. transmitting and/or receiving, by a radio node. Thebandwidth part may be smaller than the bandwidth (which may be a devicebandwidth defined by the circuitry/configuration of a device, and/or asystem bandwidth, e.g. available for a RAN).

It may be considered that a bandwidth part comprises one or moreresource blocks or resource block groups, in particular one or more PRBsor PRB groups. A bandwidth part may pertain to, and/or comprise, one ormore carriers. A resource pool or region or set may generally compriseone or a plurality (in particular, two or a multiple of two larger thantwo) of resources or resource structures. A resource or resourcestructure may comprise one or more resource elements (in particular, twoor a multiple of two larger than two), or one or more PRBs or PRB groups(in particular, two or a multiple of two larger than two), which may becontinuous in frequency. A Control CHannel Element (CCE) may beconsidered an example of a resource structure, in particular for controlsignaling, e.g. DCI or SCI.

A carrier may generally represent a frequency range or band and/orpertain to a central or center frequency and an associated frequencyinterval. It may be considered that a carrier comprises a plurality ofsubcarriers. A carrier may have assigned to it a central frequency orcenter frequency interval, e.g. represented by one or more subcarriers(to each subcarrier there may be generally assigned a frequencybandwidth or interval). Different carriers may be non-overlapping,and/or may be neighboring in frequency domain.

It should be noted that the term “radio” in this disclosure may beconsidered to pertain to wireless communication in general, and may alsoinclude wireless communication utilizing microwave and/or millimeterand/or other frequencies, in particular between 100 MHz or 1 GHz, and100 GHz or 20 or 10 GHz. Such communication may utilize one or morecarriers.

A radio node, in particular a network node or a terminal, may generallybe any device adapted for transmitting and/or receiving radio and/orwireless signals and/or data, in particular communication data, inparticular on at least one carrier. The at least one carrier maycomprise a carrier accessed based on a LBT procedure (which may becalled LBT carrier), e.g., an unlicensed carrier. It may be consideredthat the carrier is part of a carrier aggregate.

Receiving or transmitting on a cell or carrier may refer to receiving ortransmitting utilizing a frequency (band) or spectrum associated to thecell or carrier. A cell may generally comprise and/or be defined by orfor one or more carriers, in particular at least one carrier for ULcommunication/transmission (called UL carrier) and at least one carrierfor DL communication/transmission (called DL carrier). It may beconsidered that a cell comprises different numbers of UL carriers and DLcarriers. Alternatively, or additionally, a cell may comprise at leastone carrier for UL communication/transmission and DLcommunication/transmission, e.g., in TDD-based approaches.

A channel may generally be a logical, transport or physical channel. Achannel may comprise and/or be arranged on one or more carriers, inparticular a plurality of subcarriers. A channel carrying and/or forcarrying control signaling/control information may be considered acontrol channel, in particular if it is a physical layer channel and/orif it carries control plane information. Analogously, a channel carryingand/or for carrying data signaling/user information may be considered adata channel, in particular if it is a physical layer channel and/or ifit carries user plane information. A channel may be defined for aspecific communication direction, or for two complementary communicationdirections (e.g., UL and DL, or sidelink in two directions), in whichcase it may be considered to have two component channels, one for eachdirection. Examples of channels comprise a channel for low latencyand/or high reliability transmission, in particular a channel forUltra-Reliable Low Latency Communication (URLLC), which may be forcontrol and/or data.

In general, a symbol may represent and/or be associated to a symbol timelength, which may be dependent on the carrier and/or subcarrier spacingand/or numerology of the associated carrier. Accordingly, a symbol maybe considered to indicate a time interval having a symbol time length inrelation to frequency domain. A symbol time length may be dependent on acarrier frequency and/or bandwidth and/or numerology and/or subcarrierspacing of, or associated to, a symbol. Accordingly, different symbolsmay have different symbol time lengths. In particular, numerologies withdifferent subcarrier spacings may have different symbol time length.Generally, a symbol time length may be based on, and/or include, a guardtime interval or cyclic extension, e.g. prefix or postfix.

A sidelink may generally represent a communication channel (or channelstructure) between two UEs and/or terminals, in which data istransmitted between the participants (UEs and/or terminals) via thecommunication channel, e.g. directly and/or without being relayed via anetwork node. A sidelink may be established only and/or directly via airinterface/s of the participant, which may be directly linked via thesidelink communication channel. In some variants, sidelink communicationmay be performed without interaction by a network node, e.g. on fixedlydefined resources and/or on resources negotiated between theparticipants. Alternatively, or additionally, it may be considered thata network node provides some control functionality, e.g. by configuringresources, in particular one or more resource pool/s, for sidelinkcommunication, and/or monitoring a sidelink, e.g. for charging purposes.

Sidelink communication may also be referred to as device-to-device (D2D)communication, and/or in some cases as ProSe (Proximity Services)communication, e.g. in the context of LTE. A sidelink may be implementedin the context of V2x communication (Vehicular communication), e.g. V2V(Vehicle-to-Vehicle), V2I (Vehicle-to-Infrastructure) and/or V2P(Vehicle-to-Person). Any device adapted for sidelink communication maybe considered a user equipment or terminal.

A sidelink communication channel (or structure) may comprise one or more(e.g., physical or logical) channels, e.g. a PSCCH (Physical SidelinkControl CHannel, which may for example carry control information like anacknowledgement position indication, and/or a PSSCH (Physical SidelinkShared CHannel, which for example may carry data and/or acknowledgementsignaling). It may be considered that a sidelink communication channel(or structure) pertains to and/or used one or more carrier/s and/orfrequency range/s associated to, and/or being used by, cellularcommunication, e.g. according to a specific license and/or standard.Participants may share a (physical) channel and/or resources, inparticular in frequency domain and/or related to a frequency resourcelike a carrier) of a sidelink, such that two or more participantstransmit thereon, e.g. simultaneously, and/or time-shifted, and/or theremay be associated specific channels and/or resources to specificparticipants, so that for example only one participant transmits on aspecific channel or on a specific resource or specific resources, e.g.,in frequency domain and/or related to one or more carriers orsubcarriers.

A sidelink may comply with, and/or be implemented according to, aspecific standard, e.g. a LTE-based standard and/or NR. A sidelink mayutilize TDD (Time Division Duplex) and/or FDD (Frequency DivisionDuplex) technology, e.g. as configured by a network node, and/orpreconfigured and/or negotiated between the participants. A userequipment may be considered to be adapted for sidelink communication ifit, and/or its radio circuitry and/or processing circuitry, is adaptedfor utilizing a sidelink, e.g. on one or more frequency ranges and/orcarriers and/or in one or more formats, in particular according to aspecific standard. It may be generally considered that a Radio AccessNetwork is defined by two participants of a sidelink communication.Alternatively, or additionally, a Radio Access Network may berepresented, and/or defined with, and/or be related to a network nodeand/or communication with such a node.

Communication or communicating may generally comprise transmittingand/or receiving signaling. Communication on a sidelink (or sidelinksignaling) may comprise utilizing the sidelink for communication(respectively, for signaling). Sidelink transmission and/or transmittingon a sidelink may be considered to comprise transmission utilizing thesidelink, e.g. associated resources and/or transmission formats and/orcircuitry and/or the air interface. Sidelink reception and/or receivingon a sidelink may be considered to comprise reception utilizing thesidelink, e.g. associated resources and/or transmission formats and/orcircuitry and/or the air interface. Sidelink control information (e.g.,SCI) may generally be considered to comprise control informationtransmitted utilizing a sidelink.

Generally, carrier aggregation (CA) may refer to the concept of a radioconnection and/or communication link between a wireless and/or cellularcommunication network and/or network node and a terminal or on asidelink comprising a plurality of carriers for at least one directionof transmission (e.g. DL and/or UL), as well as to the aggregate ofcarriers. A corresponding communication link may be referred to ascarrier aggregated communication link or CA communication link; carriersin a carrier aggregate may be referred to as component carriers (CC). Insuch a link, data may be transmitted over more than one of the carriersand/or all the carriers of the carrier aggregation (the aggregate ofcarriers). A carrier aggregation may comprise one (or more) dedicatedcontrol carriers and/or primary carriers (which may e.g. be referred toas primary component carrier or PCC), over which control information maybe transmitted, wherein the control information may refer to the primarycarrier and other carriers, which may be referred to as secondarycarriers (or secondary component carrier, SCC). However, in someapproaches, control information may be sent over more than one carrierof an aggregate, e.g. one or more PCCs and one PCC and one or more SCCs.

A transmission may generally pertain to a specific channel and/orspecific resources, in particular with a starting symbol and endingsymbol in time, covering the interval therebetween. A scheduledtransmission may be a transmission scheduled and/or expected and/or forwhich resources are scheduled or provided or reserved. However, notevery scheduled transmission has to be realized. For example, ascheduled downlink transmission may not be received, or a scheduleduplink transmission may not be transmitted due to power limitations, orother influences (e.g., a channel on an unlicensed carrier beingoccupied). A transmission may be scheduled for a transmission timingsubstructure (e.g., a mini-slot, and/or covering only a part of atransmission timing structure) within a transmission timing structurelike a slot. A border symbol may be indicative of a symbol in thetransmission timing structure at which the transmission starts or ends.

Predefined in the context of this disclosure may refer to the relatedinformation being defined for example in a standard, and/or beingavailable without specific configuration from a network or network node,e.g. stored in memory, for example independent of being configured.Configured or configurable may be considered to pertain to thecorresponding information being set/configured, e.g. by the network or anetwork node.

A configuration or schedule, like a mini-slot configuration and/orstructure configuration, may schedule transmissions, e.g. for thetime/transmissions it is valid, and/or transmissions may be scheduled byseparate signaling or separate configuration, e.g. separate RRCsignaling and/or downlink control information signaling. Thetransmission/s scheduled may represent signaling to be transmitted bythe device for which it is scheduled, or signaling to be received by thedevice for which it is scheduled, depending on which side of acommunication the device is. It should be noted that downlink controlinformation or specifically DCI signaling may be considered physicallayer signaling, in contrast to higher layer signaling like MAC (MediumAccess Control) signaling or RRC layer signaling. The higher the layerof signaling is, the less frequent/the more time/resource consuming itmay be considered, at least partially due to the information containedin such signaling having to be passed on through several layers, eachlayer requiring processing and handling.

A scheduled transmission, and/or transmission timing structure like amini-slot or slot, may pertain to a specific channel, in particular aphysical uplink shared channel, a physical uplink control channel, or aphysical downlink shared channel, e.g. PUSCH, PUCCH or PDSCH, and/or maypertain to a specific cell and/or carrier aggregation. A correspondingconfiguration, e.g. scheduling configuration or symbol configuration maypertain to such channel, cell and/or carrier aggregation. It may beconsidered that the scheduled transmission represents transmission on aphysical channel, in particular a shared physical channel, for example aphysical uplink shared channel or physical downlink shared channel. Forsuch channels, semi-persistent configuring may be particularly suitable.

Generally, a configuration may be a configuration indicating timing,and/or be represented or configured with corresponding configurationdata. A configuration may be embedded in, and/or comprised in, a messageor configuration or corresponding data, which may indicate and/orschedule resources, in particular semi-persistently and/orsemi-statically. In general, a configuration, in particular the feedbackconfiguration and/or a codebook configuration or a set thereof, may beconfigured based on one or more messages. Such messages may beassociated to different layers, and/or there may be at least one messagefor dynamical configuration and/or at least one message for semi-staticconfiguration. Different messages may configure different or similar orthe same parameter/s and/or setting/s; in some cases, dynamicconfiguration, e.g. with DCI/SCI signaling, may override semi-staticconfiguration, and/or may indicate a selection from a set ofconfigurations, which may e.g. be pre-defined and/or configured withhigher layer/semi-static configuration. In particular, a configurationlike a feedback configuration may be configured with one or more RadioResource Control (RRC) messages and/or one or more Medium Access Control(MAC) messages and/or one or more Control Information messages, e.g.Downlink Control Information (DCI) messages and/or Sidelink ControlInformation (SCI) messages.

A control region of a transmission timing structure may be an intervalin time for intended or scheduled or reserved for control signaling, inparticular downlink control signaling, and/or for a specific controlchannel, e.g. a physical downlink control channel like PDCCH. Theinterval may comprise, and/or consist of, a number of symbols in time,which may be configured or configurable, e.g. by (UE-specific) dedicatedsignaling (which may be single-cast, for example addressed to orintended for a specific UE), e.g. on a PDCCH, or RRC signaling, or on amulticast or broadcast channel. In general, the transmission timingstructure may comprise a control region covering a configurable numberof symbols. It may be considered that in general the border symbol isconfigured to be after the control region in time.

The duration of a symbol (symbol time length or interval) of thetransmission timing structure may generally be dependent on a numerologyand/or carrier, wherein the numerology and/or carrier may beconfigurable. The numerology may be the numerology to be used for thescheduled transmission.

Scheduling a device, or for a device, and/or related transmission orsignaling, may be considered comprising, or being a form of, configuringthe device with resources, and/or of indicating to the device resources,e.g. to use for communicating. Scheduling may in particular pertain to atransmission timing structure, or a substructure thereof (e.g., a slotor a mini-slot, which may be considered a substructure of a slot). Itmay be considered that a border symbol may be identified and/ordetermined in relation to the transmission timing structure even if fora substructure being scheduled, e.g. if an underlying timing grid isdefined based on the transmission timing structure. Signaling indicatingscheduling may comprise corresponding scheduling information and/or beconsidered to represent or contain configuration data indicating thescheduled transmission and/or comprising scheduling information. Suchconfiguration data or signaling may be considered a resourceconfiguration or scheduling configuration. It should be noted that sucha configuration (in particular as single message) in some cases may notbe complete without other configuration data, e.g. configured with othersignaling, e.g. higher layer signaling. In particular, the symbolconfiguration may be provided in addition to scheduling/resourceconfiguration to identify exactly which symbols are assigned to ascheduled transmission. A scheduling (or resource) configuration mayindicate transmission timing structure/s and/or resource amount (e.g.,in number of symbols or length in time) for a scheduled transmission.

A scheduled transmission may be transmission scheduled, e.g. by thenetwork or network node. Transmission may in this context may be uplink(UL) or downlink (DL) or sidelink (SL) transmission. A device, e.g. auser equipment, for which the scheduled transmission is scheduled, mayaccordingly be scheduled to receive (e.g., in DL or SL), or to transmit(e.g. in UL or SL) the scheduled transmission. Scheduling transmissionmay in particular be considered to comprise configuring a scheduleddevice with resource/s for this transmission, and/or informing thedevice that the transmission is intended and/or scheduled for someresources. A transmission may be scheduled to cover a time interval, inparticular a successive number of symbols, which may form a continuousinterval in time between (and including) a starting symbol and an endingsymbols. The starting symbol and the ending symbol of a (e.g.,scheduled) transmission may be within the same transmission timingstructure, e.g. the same slot. However, in some cases, the ending symbolmay be in a later transmission timing structure than the startingsymbol, in particular a structure following in time. To a scheduledtransmission, a duration may be associated and/or indicated, e.g. in anumber of symbols or associated time intervals. In some variants, theremay be different transmissions scheduled in the same transmission timingstructure. A scheduled transmission may be considered to be associatedto a specific channel, e.g. a shared channel like PUSCH or PDSCH.

In the context of this disclosure, there may be distinguished betweendynamically scheduled or aperiodic transmission and/or configuration,and semi-static or semi-persistent or periodic transmission and/orconfiguration. The term “dynamic” or similar terms may generally pertainto configuration/transmission valid and/or scheduled and/or configuredfor (relatively) short timescales and/or a (e.g., predefined and/orconfigured and/or limited and/or definite) number of occurrences and/ortransmission timing structures, e.g. one or more transmission timingstructures like slots or slot aggregations, and/or for one or more(e.g., specific number) of transmission/occurrences. Dynamicconfiguration may be based on low-level signaling, e.g. controlsignaling on the physical layer and/or MAC layer, in particular in theform of DCI or SCI. Periodic/semi-static may pertain to longertimescales, e.g. several slots and/or more than one frame, and/or anon-defined number of occurrences, e.g., until a dynamic configurationcontradicts, or until a new periodic configuration arrives. A periodicor semi-static configuration may be based on, and/or be configured with,higher-layer signaling, in particular RCL layer signaling and/or RRCsignaling and/or MAC signaling.

A transmission timing structure may comprise a plurality of symbols,and/or define an interval comprising several symbols (respectively theirassociated time intervals). In the context of this disclosure, it shouldbe noted that a reference to a symbol for ease of reference may beinterpreted to refer to the time domain projection or time interval ortime component or duration or length in time of the symbol, unless it isclear from the context that the frequency domain component also has tobe considered. Examples of transmission timing structures include slot,subframe, mini-slot (which also may be considered a substructure of aslot), slot aggregation (which may comprise a plurality of slots and maybe considered a superstructure of a slot), respectively their timedomain component. A transmission timing structure may generally comprisea plurality of symbols defining the time domain extension (e.g.,interval or length or duration) of the transmission timing structure,and arranged neighboring to each other in a numbered sequence. A timingstructure (which may also be considered or implemented assynchronization structure) may be defined by a succession of suchtransmission timing structures, which may for example define a timinggrid with symbols representing the smallest grid structures. Atransmission timing structure, and/or a border symbol or a scheduledtransmission may be determined or scheduled in relation to such a timinggrid. A transmission timing structure of reception may be thetransmission timing structure in which the scheduling control signalingis received, e.g. in relation to the timing grid. A transmission timingstructure may in particular be a slot or subframe or in some cases, amini-slot.

Control information may generally be transmitted in a control message,e.g. on a physical layer or channel, e.g. as a dynamic message like aDCI message or SCI message, or in some case as higher-layer signaling,e.g. RRC or MAC layer signaling. A control message may be a command typemessage, which may comprise, and/or consist of, command typeinformation; or a scheduling type message, which may comprise schedulinginformation, e.g. scheduling data signaling. Control information maycomprise scheduling type control information (or, shorter, schedulingtype information), e.g. control information indicating resources and/ortransmission parameters for reception of signaling, and/or controlinformation indicating resources and/or transmission parameters fortransmission of signaling. The signaling may in particular be datasignaling, e.g. on a data channel. Control information may in particularcomprise, or consist of, command type control information, and/or beincluded into a command type message. In general, control information orcontrol message, e.g. DCI or SCI messages, may be distinguished betweenscheduling type information/messages and command typeinformation/messages. A scheduling type message may scheduletransmission on a data channel (data signaling), e.g. for reception ortransmission for the target radio node, e.g. in downlink or uplink,respectively. Scheduling grant and scheduling assignment are examples ofsuch scheduling type messages. A command type message may be a messageof a different type, e.g., not scheduling transmission on a datachannel. A command type message may comprise a set of instructions,which may be configurable or flexible. The instructions may bescheduling-independent. Command type information may for exampleindicate and/or instruct switching of bandwidth, e.g. to anotherbandwidth part, and/or activation or deactivation of a carrier and/orcell and/or bandwidth part, and/or activation or deactivation ofgrant-free transmissions, and/or indications of selection a parameter orconfiguration out of a set of configured parameters or configurations.In some variants, a command type message may be scheduling independentsuch that it does not schedule data signaling, or it may have astructure in which such scheduling may be configurable or optional. Forthe command type, there may be no scheduled transmission based on whichreception of the control information may be inferred. It should be notedthat scheduling type messages may comprise command type information.Feedback information may be considered a form of control information, inparticular UCI or SCI, depending on communication direction or mode.Feedback signaling may be considered a form of control signaling. Acontrol message comprising feedback information may be considered to beof a further type, which may be referred to as feedback type message,which may include a request for resources or in general UCI or UCI-likeinformation in sidelink or backhaul or relay link.

Signaling, in particular control signaling, may comprise a plurality ofsignals and/or messages, which may be transmitted on different carriersand/or be associated to different acknowledgement signaling processes,e.g. representing and/or pertaining to one or more such processes. Anindication may comprise signaling and/or a plurality of signals and/ormessages and/or may be comprised therein, which may be transmitted ondifferent carriers and/or be associated to different acknowledgementsignaling processes, e.g. representing and/or pertaining to one or moresuch processes.

It should generally be noted that the number of bits or a bit rateassociated to specific signaling that can be carried on a resourceelement may be based on a modulation and coding scheme (MCS). Thus, bitsor a bit rate may be seen as a form of resources representing a resourcestructure or range in frequency and/or time, e.g. depending on MCS. TheMCS may be configured or configurable, e.g. by control signaling, e.g.DCI or MAC (Medium Access Control) or RRC (Radio Resource Control)signaling.

Different formats of for control information may be considered, e.g.different formats for a control channel like a Physical Uplink ControlChannel (PUCCH). PUCCH may carry control information or correspondingcontrol signaling, e.g. Uplink Control Information (UCI). UCI maycomprise feedback signaling, and/or acknowledgement signaling like HARQfeedback (ACK/NACK), and/or measurement information signaling, e.g.comprising Channel Quality Information (CQI), and/or Scheduling Request(SR) signaling. One of the supported PUCCH formats may be short, and maye.g. occur at the end of a slot interval, and/or multiplexed and/orneighboring to PUSCH. Similar control information may be provided on asidelink, e.g. as Sidelink Control Information (SCI), in particular on a(physical) sidelink control channel, like a (P)SCCH.

A resource structure in frequency domain (which may be referred to asfrequency interval and/or range) may be represented by a subcarriergrouping. A subcarrier grouping may comprise one or more subcarriers,each of which may represent a specific frequency interval, and/orbandwidth. The bandwidth of a subcarrier, the length of the interval infrequency domain, may be determined by the subcarrier spacing and/ornumerology. The subcarriers may be arranged such that each subcarrierneighbors at least one other subcarrier of the grouping in frequencyspace (for grouping sizes larger than 1). The subcarriers of a groupingmay be associated to the same carrier, e.g. configurably or configuredof predefined. A physical resource block may be consideredrepresentative of a grouping (in frequency domain). A subcarriergrouping may be considered to be associated to a specific channel and/ortype of signaling, if transmission for such channel or signaling isscheduled and/or transmitted and/or intended and/or configured for atleast one, or a plurality, or all subcarriers in the grouping. Suchassociation may be time-dependent, e.g. configured or configurable orpredefined, and/or dynamic or semi-static. The association may bedifferent for different devices, e.g. configured or configurable orpredefined, and/or dynamic or semi-static. Patterns of subcarriergroupings may be considered, which may comprise one or more subcarriergroupings (which may be associated to same or differentsignalings/channels), and/or one or more groupings without associatedsignaling (e.g., as seen from a specific device). An example of apattern is a comb, for which between pairs of groupings associated tothe same signaling/channel there are arranged one or more groupingsassociated to one or more different channels and/or signaling types,and/or one or more groupings without associated channel/signaling).

Example types of signaling comprise signaling of a specificcommunication direction, in particular, uplink signaling, downlinksignaling, sidelink signaling, as well as reference signaling (e.g., SRSor CRS or CSI-RS), communication signaling, control signaling, and/orsignaling associated to a specific channel like PUSCH, PDSCH, PUCCH,PDCCH, PSCCH, PSSCH, etc.).

Operational conditions may pertain to load of the RAN, or application oruse case of transmission or signaling, and/or quality of service (QoS)conditions (or requirements) for a transmission or signaling. QoS mayfor example pertain to data rate and/or priority and/or latency and/ortransmission quality, e.g. BLER or BER. Use for URLLC may be considereda quality of service-related condition.

In this disclosure, for purposes of explanation and not limitation,specific details are set forth (such as particular network functions,processes and signaling steps) in order to provide a thoroughunderstanding of the technique presented herein. It will be apparent toone skilled in the art that the present concepts and aspects may bepracticed in other variants and variants that depart from these specificdetails.

For example, the concepts and variants are partially described in thecontext of Long Term Evolution (LTE) or LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) or NewRadio mobile or wireless communications technologies; however, this doesnot rule out the use of the present concepts and aspects in connectionwith additional or alternative mobile communication technologies such asthe Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM). While describedvariants may pertain to certain Technical Specifications (TSs) of theThird Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), it will be appreciated thatthe present approaches, concepts and aspects could also be realized inconnection with different Performance Management (PM) specifications.

Moreover, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the services,functions and steps explained herein may be implemented using softwarefunctioning in conjunction with a programmed microprocessor, or using anApplication Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Digital SignalProcessor (DSP), a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or a generalpurpose computer. It will also be appreciated that while the variantsdescribed herein are elucidated in the context of methods and devices,the concepts and aspects presented herein may also be embodied in aprogram product as well as in a system comprising control circuitry,e.g. a computer processor and a memory coupled to the processor, whereinthe memory is encoded with one or more programs or program products thatexecute the services, functions and steps disclosed herein.

It is believed that the advantages of the aspects and variants presentedherein will be fully understood from the foregoing description, and itwill be apparent that various changes may be made in the form,constructions and arrangement of the exemplary aspects thereof withoutdeparting from the scope of the concepts and aspects described herein orwithout sacrificing all of its advantageous effects. The aspectspresented herein can be varied in many ways.

Some useful abbreviations comprise

Abbreviation Explanation ACK/NACK Acknowledgment/NegativeAcknowledgement ARQ Automatic Repeat reQuest CAZAC Constant AmplitudeZero Cross Correlation CBG Code Block Group CCE Control Channel ElementCDM Code Division Multiplex CM Cubic Metric CORESET Control channelResource Set CQI Channel Quality Information CRC Cyclic Redundancy CheckCRS Common reference signal CSI Channel State Information CSI-RS Channelstate information reference signal DAI Downlink Assignment Indicator DCIDownlink Control Information DFT Discrete Fourier Transform DM(−)RSDemodulation reference signal(ing) FDD/FDM Frequency DivisionDuplex/Multiplex HARQ Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request IFFT Inverse FastFourier Transform MBB Mobile Broadband MCS Modulation and Coding SchemeMIMO Multiple-input-multiple-output MRC Maximum-ratio combining MRTMaximum-ratio transmission MU-MIMO Multiusermultiple-input-multiple-output OFDM/A Orthogonal Frequency DivisionMultiplex/Multiple Access PAPR Peak to Average Power Ratio PBCH PhysicalBroadcast CHannel PDCCH Physical Downlink Control CHannel PDSCH PhysicalDownlink Shared CHannel PRACH Physical Random Access CHannel PRBPhysical Resource Block PUCCH Physical Uplink Control CHannel PUSCHPhysical Uplink Shared CHannel (P)SCCH (Physical) Sidelink ControlCHannel (P)SSCH (Physical) Sidelink Shared CHannel QoS Quality ofService RB Resource Block RNTI Radio Network Temporary Identifier RRCRadio Resource Control SC-FDM/A Single Carrier Frequency DivisionMultiplex/Multiple Access SCI Sidelink Control Information SINRSignal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio SIR Signal-to-interference ratioSNR Signal-to-noise-ratio SR Scheduling Request SRS Sounding ReferenceSignal(ing) SVD Singular-value decomposition TDD/TDM Time DivisionDuplex/Multiplex UCI Uplink Control Information UE User Equipment URLLCUltra Low Latency High Reliability Communication VL-MIMO Very-largemultiple-input-multiple-output ZF Zero Forcing

Abbreviations may be considered to follow 3GPP usage if applicable.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of operating a user equipment in a radioaccess network, the user equipment being configured with a referencetime resource available in at least one slot, for transmission of ascheduling request by the user equipment, the reference time resourcecomprising a reference symbol R, each of the at least one slot having aslot duration that is based on a number N of symbols in the slot, theuser equipment being further configured with a requesting periodicity Pindicating a periodicity with a time period shorter than the slotduration, the method comprising: transmitting a scheduling requestmessage at a request transmission symbol T which is based on thereference symbol R and the periodicity P.
 2. A user equipment for aradio access network, the user equipment being configured with: areference time resource available in at least one slot, for transmissionof a scheduling request by the user equipment, the reference timeresource comprising a reference symbol R, each of the at least one slothaving a slot duration that is based on a number N of symbols in theslot; a requesting periodicity P indicating a periodicity with a timeperiod shorter than the slot duration; and the user equipment beingconfigured for transmitting a scheduling request message at a requesttransmission symbol T which is based on the reference symbol R and theperiodicity P.
 3. The user equipment according to claim 2, wherein theperiodicity P corresponds to one of 2 and 7 symbols.
 4. The userequipment according to claim 2, wherein at least one of: the schedulingrequest message is transmitted over at least one symbol; and thereference time resource comprises at least one symbol.
 5. The userequipment according to claim 2, wherein the scheduling request messageis a physical control channel message.
 6. The user equipment accordingto claim 2, wherein at least one of: at least one of the periodicity Pand the reference symbol R is semi-statically configured; and at leastone of the periodicity P and the reference symbol R is configuredutilising Radio Resource Control signaling.
 7. The user equipmentaccording to claim 2, wherein the periodicity P and the reference symbolR are configured with the same message or with different messages. 8.The user equipment according to claim 2, wherein the requesttransmission symbol T is earlier in a slot than the reference symbol Rof the same slot.
 9. The user equipment according to claim 2, whereinthe user equipment is configured with a slot offset, the slot offsetindicating a starting slot from which the reference time resource isavailable.
 10. The user equipment according to claim 2, wherein thescheduling request message comprises one of 1 and 2 bits.
 11. The userequipment according to claim 2, wherein 1 bit of the scheduling requestmessage indicates whether the user equipment requests resources fortransmission by the user equipment.
 12. A method of operating a radionode in a radio access network, the method comprising: configuring auser equipment with a reference time resource available in at least oneslot for transmission of a scheduling request by the user equipment, thereference time resource comprising a reference symbol R, each of the atleast one slot having a slot duration that is based on a number N ofsymbols in the slot, the user equipment also being configured with arequesting periodicity P indicating a periodicity with a time periodshorter than the slot duration; and receiving a scheduling requestmessage at a request reception symbol RC which is based on the referencesymbol R and the periodicity P.
 13. A radio node for a radio accessnetwork, the radio node being configured to: configure a user equipmentwith a reference time resource available in at least one slot fortransmission of a scheduling request by the user equipment, thereference time resource comprising a reference symbol R, each of the atleast one slot having a slot duration that is based on a number N ofsymbols in the slot, the user equipment also being configured with arequesting periodicity P indicating a periodicity with a time periodshorter than the slot duration; and receive a scheduling request messageat a request reception symbol RC which is based on the reference symbolR and the periodicity P.
 14. The radio node according to claim 13,wherein the periodicity P corresponds to one of 2 and 7 symbols.
 15. Theradio node according to claim 13, wherein at least one of: thescheduling request message is transmitted over at least one symbol; andthe reference time resource comprises at least one symbol.
 16. The radionode according to claim 13, wherein the scheduling request message is aphysical control channel message.
 17. The radio node according to claim13, wherein at least one of: at least one of the periodicity P and thereference symbol R is semi-statically configured; and at least one ofthe periodicity P and the reference symbol R is configured utilisingRadio Resource Control signaling.
 18. The radio node according to claim13, wherein the periodicity P and the reference symbol R are configuredwith the same message or with different messages.
 19. The radio nodeaccording to claim 13, wherein the request transmission symbol T isearlier in a slot than the reference symbol R of the same slot.
 20. Theradio node according to claim 13, wherein the user equipment isconfigured with a slot offset, the slot offset indicating a startingslot from which the reference time resource is available.
 21. The radionode according to claim 13, wherein the scheduling request messagecomprises one of 1 and 2 bits.
 22. The radio node according to claim 13,wherein 1 bit of the scheduling request message indicates whether theuser equipment requests resources for transmission by the userequipment.
 23. A computer storage medium storing an executable computerprogram that, when executed, causes processing circuitry to at least oneof control and perform a method of operating a user equipment in a radioaccess network, the user equipment being configured with a referencetime resource available in at least one slot, for transmission of ascheduling request by the user equipment, the reference time resourcecomprising a reference symbol R, each of the at least one slot having aslot duration that is based on a number N of symbols in the slot, theuser equipment being further configured with a requesting periodicity Pindicating a periodicity with a time period shorter than the slotduration, the method comprising: transmitting a scheduling requestmessage at a request transmission symbol T which is based on thereference symbol R and the periodicity P.
 24. A computer storage mediumstoring an executable computer program that, when executed, causesprocessing circuitry to at least one of control and perform a method ofoperating a radio node in a radio access network, the method comprising:configuring a user equipment with a reference time resource available inat least one slot for transmission of a scheduling request by the userequipment, the reference time resource comprising a reference symbol R,each of the at least one slot having a slot duration that is based on anumber N of symbols in the slot, the user equipment also beingconfigured with a requesting periodicity P indicating a periodicity witha time period shorter than the slot duration; and receiving a schedulingrequest message at a request reception symbol RC which is based on thereference symbol R and the periodicity P.